Ewe language

Encyclopedia : E : EW : EWE : Ewe language

Ewe is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana and Togo by approximately three million people (Capo 1991). Ewe is part of a cluster of related languages commonly called Gbe, stretching from eastern Ghana to Western Nigeria. Other Gbe languages Fon and Aja. Like other Gbe languages, Ewe is a tonal language.

Ewe is one of the better documented languages of Africa, partly due to the massive work of Diedrich Hermann Westermann, who published many dictionaries and grammars of Ewe and several other Gbe languages. Other linguists that have worked on Ewe include Gilbert Ansre (tone, syntax), Hounkpati B. Capo (phonology, phonetics), Herbert Stahlke (morphology, tone), Roberto Pazzi (anthropology, lexicography), Felix K. Ameka (semantics, cognitive linguistics) and Alan Stewart Duthie (semantics, phonetics).

Contents

1 Sounds

1.1 Consonants
1.2 Vowels

2 Writing system
3 References
4 External links

Sounds

Consonants

Glottal

k͡p

mi 'you', and the second person singular pronoun wò 'you' is marked low to distinguish it from the third person plural pronoun wo 'they/them'

ekpɔ wò [ɛ́kp͡ɔ̀ wɔ̀] — 'he saw you'
ekpɔ wo [ɛ́kp͡ɔ̀ wɔ́] — 'he saw them'

References

Ansre, Gilbert (1961) The Tonal Structure of Ewe. MA Thesis, Kennedy School of Missions of Hartford Seminary Foundation.
Ameka, Felix Kofi (2001) 'Ewe'. In Garry and Rubino (eds.), Fact About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present, 207-213. New York/Dublin: The H.W. Wilson Company.
Capo, Hounkpati B.C. (1991) A Comparative Phonology of Gbe, Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, 14. Berlin/New York: Foris Publications & Garome, Bénin: Labo Gbe (Int).
Pasch, Helma (1995) Kurzgrammatik des Ewe Köln: Köppe.
Westermann, Diedrich Hermann (1930) A Study of the Ewe Language London: Oxford University Press.

External links

[ {{{1] of Wikipedia

[Ethnologue report for Ewe]
[Short Ewe resources list] at UCLA
[Ewe alphabet and pronunciation] page at Omniglot
[link] Recordings of Ewe being spoken.

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